Ars Magna Rufane
by jottingz
Summary: Post Delta Quadrant debriefings are tough. Janeway has her own way of coping.


Chakotay was getting seriously anxious. He was watching his commanding officer like a hawk and all the signs were bad.

Run to the escape pods bad.

When negotiating with Delta Quadrant aliens, the expression he saw on her face at that moment usually indicated that things were about to go to hell in hand-basket. He'd lost count of how many hostile species had caused that look.

But there weren't any belligerent beings who were making threats to make her angry. Voyager's crew and captain were all safely back in the Alpha Quadrant and back on Earth, in the arms of Starfleet. And it seemed that Starfleet was pissing her off in ways that Delta Quadrant species never achieved.

He felt sorry for his captain. For reasons best known to Starfleet Command, the senior staff's debriefing had been held at a headquarters conference center, and although they'd initially been allowed to briefly talk to their families via video link, they were now not permitted to leave the compound or have direct vid or voice contact with them and were back to communicating as they had in the Delta Quadrant.

For the first few weeks after their return, most of the sessions had been lively and interesting and the days passed quickly. The crew would congregate together at meal times and the atmosphere was relaxed and relieved.

The general crew had been released after three weeks and permitted to leave the facility and rejoin their families.

Seven, on the other hand, had only been detained for five days before she went to Sweden to briefly visit with her aunt and had then gone to stay with Gretchen Janeway.

It had been somewhere around the third day, however, that Chakotay and Seven had decided that their relationship should end. Even in the short time in their new environment, it was ably demonstrated to them both that they had nothing other than Voyager in common. When Seven had left the center a few days after that, they parted as friends.

Tuvok had been excused almost immediately after Voyager's return and permitted to join his family on Vulcan, for what Chakotay wasn't sure, but he knew that the captain had been adamant about it.

The Doctor was with Doctor Zimmerman after he produced reports and logs of his discoveries and experiences that left the medical committee enraptured.

Tom and B'Elanna (and therefore, Miral) were excused after only a day more than the regular crew. It was hard to begrudge them being allowed to leave early, but there was so much technical data to get through both from B'Elanna's reports and logs that the Engineering committee suggested that for the "nuts & bolts" should be discussed once the techs and the committee had digested some of the information. Dahoon said that it would probably take months to scratch the surface.

So, after they left, the committee concentrated more on the high level issues from the command team's point of view and what recommendations Janeway would make regarding the more standard features of the ship.

Harry had been the last member of the senior staff to leave. He had apparently compiled copious notes throughout the voyage of the shortcomings of the Operations sensors and had presented those and his own recommendations also to the Engineering committee. Chakotay thought Dahoon had looked like he wanted to adopt Harry, he had been that impressed with the young man.

Chakotay knew that Janeway had been happy that the other senior staff were finally allowed to join their families but he knew that they had both agreed that Miral was the only thing that made the first few weeks bearable.

It seemed that with the only Janeway and Chakotay remaining, the debriefings had somewhat bogged down, with perhaps the exception of the Engineering and Tactical groups.

The Tactical Group sessions were lead by Admiral Miony who seemed entranced by the methods used by the command team of Voyager and never failed to make their sessions interesting and relaxed as well as getting their opinions on incorporating some of their techniques into command and tactical training.

Similarly, the Engineering committee and Admiral Dahoon created lively discussions on what had worked and what hadn't on Voyager modifications and patches, even after Torres had been excused.

The Engineering sessions always seemed to include a joke about the gel packs which Janeway could laugh about _now_.

Dahoon was particularly complementary about Voyager's senior staff's out of the box fixes and mentioned several times that she thought Torres a genius. Chakotay and Janeway readily agreed.

Captain and First Officer were unanimous in their wish that there were more than two Engineering and Tactical meetings per week.

Unfortunately, they could glean no apparent reason there was for so many more First Contact or Protocol meetings. Even the Prime Directive (Standard and Temporal) committee were satisfied and concluded, which even Janeway thought was both a relief and strange, given her experiences with time during the journey, but she confided in Chakotay that she wasn't complaining.

So here they both sat on the thankfully last, but also the longest, meeting for the day. It was mind numbingly boring and barely a couple of questions had been directed at either himself or Janeway. It was as incomprehensible as it was annoying. He supposed that the worst that could be said was that officers who were now presiding over the required debriefings were dull and obsessed with minute and obscure detail.

This session was Protocol. Chakotay agreed heartily with the captain that it was the most nonsensical debriefing in which he'd ever had to take part. If the First Contact group was dull, the Protocol meetings were soporific.

The officer in charge of these examinations of procedural minutia was Admiral Bendras. Paris would have called him a 'cold fish'. It was plain to Chakotay, however, that Janeway didn't like him.

For the life of him, he couldn't understand what about Bendras she objected to, and to say Janeway didn't like Bendras was an understatement. For some reason, she detested him. Chakotay had never seen her like this. She actually squirmed in her seat every time the admiral spoke to her.

If Janeway had issues with Bendras, then Chakotay's _bête noire_ was Rear Admiral Podmore. Podmore was, in Chakotay's opinion, a prissy, pedantic martinet. And at that moment, they were all confined in a room together, which had the result of making Chakotay almost nostalgic for being imprisoned by the Kazon.

Admirals Bendras and Podmore were discussing whether or not Voyager's captain should have reinstated Tom Paris to lieutenant after demoting him. So far, the two admirals had spent over an hour talking among themselves about it. As Tom was only initially given a field commission and had not shown the slightest desire to re-join Starfleet once back the Alpha Quadrant, Chakotay thought the discussion moot. This was just another example of the spectacularly trivial deviations from procedure about which Podmore seemed to take great umbrage. Podmore's mouth went into a little pout, as if he'd just eaten something very sour, each time a vague infraction was discovered.

Between Podmore and Bendras, the Protocol sessions were miserable for the captain and her first officer.

Chakotay mentally shook himself and tried to pay attention. Another glance at Janeway confirmed that it didn't look like his commanding officer was taking the enforced confinement or the endless and pointless administrative postmortems well. She was _far_ beyond the fiddling with her comm-badge stage. In fact, he'd have to say they should be a hair's breadth away from calling for a swift evacuation.

All the indications were that she was very, _very_ angry.

Her eyes were glittering with fury and he was worried that they should raise the alarm or that he should warn the people who were currently in this meeting. Or building.

Just as he was formulating a method of restraining her, or at least diverting attention in some small way, he noticed that she seemed to relax almost imperceptibly.

Thanking whatever gods were responsible, he leaned back in his chair and released a shaky breath, assured that the impending crisis was averted. For now.

Realizing that he again hadn't been paying attention to anything that had actually been said for some time, he was a bit surprised when the meeting ended and the potential targets of Janeway's wrath left the room.

He looked again to her, and leaned over to see if she was all right. She had gone very still but then surprised him by turning towards him. She smiled and whispered in a conspiratorial manner.

"Poo merd."

"Are you… _what_?!" Chakotay was concerned that she'd finally cracked under the unrelenting pressure of the enforced inactivity and excruciatingly dull debriefings, which were now in their seventh hugely tedious week.

"Poo merd. It's an anagram of that idiot Admiral Podmore's name." She leaned back and smiled in smug satisfaction. "Perfect. Well, _almost_ perfect. I needed an extra 'e'."

"Kathryn, are you okay?"

"Admiral Williams. I am swill."

"Kathryn."

"It's a technique I got from my father," she smiled at the memory. "It's like the public speaking thing, you know the one where you imagine the audience naked?"

" _Kathryn_."

"The object is to make anagrams of the names of people you're having problems with. So far, it's working, thank goodness. I haven't said anything inappropriate and I'm not going to be court-martialed for insubordination or assaulting a fellow officer. _So far_." She seemed pleased with herself.

"You've been sitting here doing word puzzles?"

"It's better than listening to them, isn't it?" She nodded toward the now empty admiral's chairs and then rose to collect all the PADDs scattered on the table in front of them.

"You're kidding me." Chakotay looked at her through narrowed eyes, feeling vaguely irritated. He decided to test it out. "Admiral Underwood."

"Now rude do."

"Ramprakash?"

"A sharp mark." and then she added, "Actually, I quite like him. At least he asks questions with some relevance."

"Halberstam?"

"Rat shamble," her mouth twitched and she grinned.

"Dahsithe?"

"Shit head." This time the smile was definitely smug. "Suits him though. He was a little weasel. Maybe he and Podmore are twins separated at birth."

"Bendras."

"Bar ends. Not one of my best, sadly," she laughed. "Does he remind you of anyone? I can't help thinking I've met him before. He gives me the willies. He keeps asking questions after his sessions that I obviously can't answer because they're classified and then he gets all surly and annoyed." She shook her head as if trying to remove the memory. "Anyway, I'm sure…" She paused as she looked at Chakotay when he made a strange noise in his throat.

"I can't believe it. I've been sitting here worrying about what you're going to do or say and you've been dicking around with word games." Even Chakotay couldn't understand why he was suddenly so angry with her. But he was. Very.

"Okay chat." She resumed her packing and piled the PADDs into some sort of order.

" _What_?"

"Chakotay is an anagram of 'okay chat'. Another below par attempt. A bit like…"

"Stop it. Right now."

She stopped what she was doing and looked up and blinked at him.

Janeway shrugged, "I haven't been doing that the _whole_ time," she said in a mollifying tone. "Most of the time I've been practicing the meditation techniques that Tuvok showed me."

"You've been in a _trance_?"

"Chakotay," she explained patiently, "for the past million meetings they've made me listen to _my own logs_. And we couldn't even listen to the good ones," she snorted. "Oh no, they want to concentrate on the most unbelievably dull sections of our journey." She leaned toward him and in a conspiratorial manner added, "I think they're trying to bore me to death to get rid of me."

"You haven't even been paying attention?" Chakotay shook his head, "I can't believe this." He almost felt cheated in some way.

They picked up their PADDs and made their way into the corridor. Janeway was obviously enjoying his outrage, thinking that he'd eventually see the funny side. She decided to offer an olive branch.

"Let me make it up to you. How about I buy you dinner?"

"Er, no. Can't tonight. Other plans."

For a split second, she had looked stricken. "Another time, perhaps. Have a good evening, Commander." Then she had turned abruptly on her heel and walked with a determined clip towards her quarters.

He immediately regretted his lie. It was an incredibly stupid one because neither of them could possibly have much in the way of plans because they were the last of the crew still being debriefed and their options for food were only the mess hall or their personal replicators. Apart from the current swarm of mostly doddery and obnoxious admirals and their lackeys, there was only himself and the captain left in this part of the facility.

Chakotay stood watching her as she walked down the hall until his view was obscured by Admiral Ethwiny and some of the other committee members that were also exiting the adjacent room.

Chakotay decided that it wouldn't have hurt him to have a drink or dinner with Kathryn. He regretted being so short with her and he'd caught the hurt look she had tried to hide before she'd hurried away.

The debriefings had been running for nearly two months and he'd got to the point where he dreaded that there might be still months to go. They were only just touching on the failed slipstream attempt with the engineering committee and there were still quite a few topics to discuss with the tactical group.

The earlier sessions of practically all the subject areas had been interesting and even intellectually challenging while the majority of the senior staff had been present, but now it was just the two of them, the discussions had bogged down. Chakotay suspected that it was to allow several of the admirals to assert their authority over Janeway, rather than for any significant information about information collection.

The protocol committee had to be the worst, especially for the captain. Each deviation from regulations was examined with an almost vindictive thoroughness, and Admirals Podmore and Bendras harped on every perceived infraction and made no effort to conceal their disapproval. Chakotay feared that Janeway was in for a worrying final report at the end of the debriefing, if it _ever_ ended.

On the other hand, the first contacts committee now seemed to plod through each alien encounter and managed to make every one seem dull and uninteresting, even Species 8472. Those sessions had entailed just listening to the Captain's logs, while both the Captain and her First Officer both sat in silence wondering why they were even present. Things had gone downhill from there.

Rather than voice her displeasure, Janeway had sat practically motionless and silent. At first, Chakotay had thought she was going to explode in rage, but now he knew that she was sitting there making up rude anagrams of the committee member's names.

He admitted to himself that his reaction to the whole episode bordered on the childish, he thought her technique not only had merit, but that it was quite funny as well.

More than seven years and she was still surprising him.

He would make it up to her. Tomorrow he would apologize and hopefully she would at least eat lunch with him. The thought cheered him as he made his way back to his quarters.

Once in his quarters, he replicated some dinner. Had he still been in the Delta Quadrant, he would've considered it delicious, but after a few weeks of proper meals prepared with fresh ingredients from the facility's Mess Hall, he found it rather bland and underwhelming. Once more he regretted not accepting the captain's offer.

Suddenly, he found himself craving the peach pie that seemed to be a specialty of the cook.

Deciding on a quick trip to the Mess Hall to grab some of the pie and return to his quarters, he put on his jacket and made his way there. As he entered, he noticed Janeway with Admiral Baring of the Engineering Committee sitting at a table. They were the only diners. He imagined that Baring had overheard him decline her invitation and had decided to invite himself instead. Now he _really_ felt bad.

Even from his location near the dessert area, Chakotay could see that Baring was obviously doing all the talking and didn't seem to expect her to contribute to the conversation apart from the occasional nod or hum of agreement in response to whatever he was droning on about. He wondered if she'd tried Tuvok's meditation technique, but suspected that attempting to eat while in a trance might be a choking hazard.

Baring, whose nickname of "Boring" Chakotay had never _previously_ appreciated before these debriefings, had a reputation for being incredibly detail oriented in a professional sense and just plain dull in any social situation. He looked like he was certainly living up to his reputation.

Although Janeway was facing away from his location, he could see she had the largest mug that the Mess Hall had. Chakotay smiled that he had no doubt it was coffee and that, under the circumstances it could be considered a vital part of her meal.

Once he'd returned to his room, he _really_ felt guilty about not only refusing her dinner offer, but also being so angry with her about her method of getting through the briefings. He'd been not only unfair, he'd been irrational.

He sat and looked at his now unappetizing, piece of pie, pushing it around his plate.

There was no doubt that Janeway had endured the worse of the reactions to her decisions, which he thought was unfair and sometimes, unreasonable. No wonder she found escape where she could.

The first reaming she had received was on the very first day of debriefings from Admiral Podmore about her one permitted live comm call to her mother. Apparently, she had innocently mentioned to her mother that she was worried most of all about the reception and treatment of Voyager's two Borg crew members. Her mother, the wife of an admiral and well versed in the way of Starfleet bureaucracy, had acted quickly after the call with her daughter.

Podmore had the captain, and for whatever reason Chakotay as well, on the carpet less than twelve hours later asking her to 'explain herself'. Completely bewildered, Janeway was at an obvious loss. The Admiral showed them the video of her mother on the main Fed News, explaining how Seven and Icheb had become so dear to her daughter and important to the rest of the crew of Voyager and how Gretchen was so happy to have a new daughter and son, as well as their dear Kathryn, home and safe. Her mother then went on to detail how she and Phoebe were eagerly preparing to have their _whole_ family home for Christmas.

Although Chakotay could tell she was surprised by her mother's action, he could also tell that she was absolutely delighted and relieved. Her mother had managed to secure both Icheb and Seven's freedom in one media appearance.

There wasn't much that Podmore could censure the captain about, though. The video transcript revealed nothing other than a daughter happy to see her mother. This seemed to be a personal affront to Podmore, though.

Chakotay wasn't sure how Janeway pulled it off but the message, whatever it was, was received loud and clear by Gretchen Janeway and both Seven and Icheb had been adopted by the Janeway family and no doubt fiercely protected.

In fact, both were already enjoying their stays at the Janeway home. Icheb had informed him proudly that Gretchen had declared him "the man of the house" and both he and Seven were having a wonderful time despite, as Icheb mentioned, Phoebe Janeway being both 'entertaining, formidable and somewhat unpredictable'. Chakotay could only imagine but also felt a twinge of jealousy of Seven and Icheb.

He sat up straight and mentally slapped himself. What the hell was wrong with him?

Voyager was home. The ex-Maquis were safe. The rest of the crew were okay. Seven and Icheb were _more_ than okay. Hell, Naomi had even finally met her father.

Everyone was safe, he knew he wasn't facing any criminal charges, he was fine and 'poo merd' was an apt anagram.

At that moment, he resolved to apologize to Janeway as soon as possible and hopefully regain some of their friendship and thereby help her survive tomorrow's no doubt deadly dull Protocol debriefing. He was still her first officer and he had to start acting like it again.

With that resolution, he ate the pie, had a shower, went to bed early and had the best night's sleep he'd had in literally years.

* * *

The next morning Chakotay and Janeway sat together listening to Admirals Hencelli and Ginoke inexplicably arguing among themselves about what they would do in a situation like that Voyager encountered with the Nyrians.

Once more, captain and commander wondered why they were present. The current exchange between the two admirals could surely occur at any time and they certainly didn't require, or it seemed, even want the opinion of Voyager's staff. What was even more bizarre was that this and other topics had already been covered in earlier sessions.

He glanced at the captain. She looked like she was paying attention but he now knew she was probably grappling with trying to come up with an anagram of Admiral Hencelli's name. He wasn't sure he could pull off looking so attentive when he was actually doing word puzzles.

It was time to apologize for the previous night while the admirals were discussing the captain and Tuvok's work to override the security controls on the Nyrian displacement technology. Chakotay leaned towards Janeway but she spoke before he did.

"Baring said last night that there's only one week to go, _tops_ ," she whispered, managing to look like all the world like she was hanging on the panel's every word.

"You better not be teasing me, Kathryn." His tone held none of the dismissal of the previous evening's exchange and he hoped that she could even hear that in his voice. His reply resulted in a small smirk from her.

"I know, right?" Janeway appeared to check her PADD and leaned towards him, appearing to look at his. "I may have even calculated how many hours and minutes to go."

And with that small exchange, they seemed to regain some of their previous ease around each other.

"Let me apologize for last night at lunch?" he asked while two admirals bizarrely discussed a point about an engineering technique that had been used on Voyager when they had been short on dilithium. He wasn't sure when they'd stopped talking about the Nyrians, or what that had to do with dilithium usage. Or indeed why they were discussing things outside their remit. "It's korma day, today."

She seemed surprised at the invitation and gave him a broad grin. "Sounds great."

Chakotay quickly realized that extending the olive branch to Janeway was the right thing to do. Not only did she immediately agree to have lunch with him but her momentary expression of both delight and relief convinced him that he'd overreacted to her meeting techniques and had been a bit of a jerk.

The next session for the morning was Security and as Callaghan and Williams had somehow managed to talk about nothing of consequence and yet still run over time, Janeway and Chakotay had to pick up their things and move quickly to the next meeting, only to discover they had arrived before the other participants.

Admiral Baring had then entered the room and informed them that Admiral Faulkner had taken ill and the session was cancelled. There was an unsettling moment, however, when Baring mentioned that Admiral Bendras had offered to step in to help out. Janeway and Chakotay had glanced at each other with shared horror.

Thankfully, Baring went on to say that as most of their questions had been already answered by Tuvok's extensive and precise logs and the sessions they'd had so far, that they would struggle along with the bare three admirals.

After giving them the news about Faulkner, Baring had wanted to discuss other matters with Admirals Callaghan and Williams. He'd generously given Janeway and Chakotay an early start to lunch.

They grabbed their PADDs and got out of the room before the admiral changed his mind and made their way to the Mess Hall,

"They'd have to 'struggle along with the bare three admirals'? Can you believe it? Not having Bendras on the Security debrief is the best news I've had for _weeks_." Janeway went straight to the carafe of fresh coffee that the manager of the Mess Hall always had ready for her. "Do you want a cup, Chakotay?"

"I'd like something stronger after _that_ narrowly diverted disaster but I guess I'll have to settle for a coffee, thanks."

She returned to their table with the two mugs and smiled as she put his in front of him.

Once seated, they silently faced one and other. After a couple of seconds, they both spoke.

"I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry."

They spoke at the same time. Then they both smiled.

"After you."

"After you."

They laughed and the ice was broken. When they settled down again, Chakotay apologized for his boorish behavior and Janeway apologized for the previous seven years.

"There were so many things I wished I'd done better out there," Janeway said with obvious regret.

"I don't think you did a bad job, Kathryn. Just the opposite, actually. You got the majority of the original Starfleet and the Maquis crews back to the Alpha Quadrant _alive_ across a distance that should've taken 75 years in a tenth of that time. To be honest, I don't think anyone else could've done it. I don't think I could."

"You were a great captain, Chakotay. Don't sell yourself short."

"I could say the same to you, Kathryn."

"I just wish…I don't know. I could've been closer to the crew. "

Chakotay leaned back in his chair and stared at her.

"Did you attend Prixin celebrations? Naomi's birthday parties? All the other crew celebrations which ran at least once a week, if I recall, especially after the Equinox fiasco?"

She winced at the mention of the Equinox but agreed that she had attended the myriad of cultural events that Neelix had, they all suspected at the time, invented.

"Only because _you_ encouraged me to attend." And by 'encouraged' she meant 'cajoled'.

"So what more you could possibly have done, Kathryn? In between captaining the ship and negotiating 70,000 light years and dozens of first contacts, that is."

She shrugged and as she turned her coffee mug around and around on the table.

"You know, Seven told me about what you said."

Janeway's expression looked blank as her head came up from examining her coffee.

"You told her that you were her captain, which means you couldn't always be her friend. I think you were right and so did Seven."

"Really?"

"Really. She also said that the look on your face when she told you she didn't understand but once you were both assimilated that she would was priceless and she wished she'd had a holocamera."

Janeway leaned back in her seat. "Every now and then, Seven manages to completely surprise me. What ever else I did wrong out there, I'm glad I bought her on board."

"I know I wasn't very supportive at the beginning, but she is a credit to you, Kathryn."

"I'm glad you think so. I hope I recognize her when I get home. She's been in Phoebe's clutches for an alarming amount of time."

They laughed again and both were relieved that the subject had been changed.

"Did I tell you that Sekaya will be on Earth by the end of the week?"

"Oh, Chakotay, how wonderful!" She reached across the table and squeezed his hand. "I'll let Mom know and if Sekaya wants to, she can stay in Indiana until we're sprung from here. Then we can all be together."

"That…actually sounds like heaven, Kathryn. Your mother won't mind?"

"I can guarantee that Mom will be delighted to have you stay with us. I wouldn't be surprised if she hasn't already organized Sekaya to stay there, to be honest."

And then they started talking together as they had earlier in the journey, before the battles, the worry and the stress had taken its toll on their friendship. They were so engrossed in their conversation, that they almost missed lunch.

They did manage to eat their meals before once more talking about all the things they hadn't really discussed in depth in the Delta Quadrant.

"Oh my. Look at the time. We'd better get back." Janeway sounded less than enthusiastic at the prospect.

"I've really enjoyed this, Kathryn. Let's have dinner tonight."

"That sounds lovely."

"My quarters? About 1900?"

"It's a date! Now, at the risk of sounding like the white rabbit, we're late."

* * *

As he had on several other occasions, Admiral Bendras requested that Janeway remain at the end of a session and answer a question or discuss some minor variation from normal procedure.

Chakotay knew that Janeway had, over the weeks, developed a strategy for extricating herself from this exact situation by scooping up her PADDs and making a dash for the exit. Success had been patchy.

His invitation to dinner in his quarters this evening seemed to have distracted her enough to allow Bendras to snare her before her escape.

"Captain, I just have a question for you before you leave."

"Yes, sir." She turned towards Chakotay. "I'm sorry, Commander," she addressed him as he stood in the doorway waiting for her. "Can I join you at about 1900?"

"Of course, Captain. 1900 hours." Chakotay inwardly laughed at her predicament. He had no doubt that she would devise a way to get him back for his desertion of her as he disappeared down the corridor.

* * *

Chakotay put the finishing touches on the table settings in his quarters, stood back and examined his work.

He had managed to talk one of the kitchen staff into letting him have a bottle of real wine and he knew that Kathryn would be pleased.

As he double checked the settings for her favorite pasta dish in the replicator, he realized that since they had reconciled and worked things out between them, he felt somehow lighter in spirit and almost as though a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

It hadn't just been the last few weeks or months, the previous year or even two had been hard on both of them and sometimes during the latter parts of their journey, he wondered if the person he fell in love with had been eroded away, leaving only a brittle hard shell. What he'd experienced in the previous twenty four hours had reassured him that she was still someone he wanted to be around.

Just one thing to check. "Chakotay to Janeway."

" _Captain Janeway is not in the conference facilit_ y."

That was surprising news. As far as he knew, they were both still confined to the center.

He was torn. There was no way he wanted to ruin some little get away she had somehow managed, but on the other hand, there wasn't any real chance that she would flaunt orders and go AWOL.

"Chakotay to Security."

" _Commander Street here, sir_."

"Commander I'm trying to locate Captain Janeway."

" _Yes, sir. Captain Janeway has shuttled to Voyager with Admiral Bendras_."

"Oh, I see. When are they due to return?"

" _They should be back very soon, Commander. According to the Admiral's flight plan, they were due back a few minutes ago. They won't be long, I'm sure_."

"Thank you, Commander. Chakotay out."

Chakotay smiled to himself, imagining Janeway stuck on a shuttle with Bendras. He thought the only thing that would have gotten her on the shuttle with that particular admiral was the prospect of visiting Voyager.

Realizing he had a bit of extra time before she was likely to get to dinner, Chakotay thought he should take the opportunity to put the finishing touches on his report that he had to take to the next session of the First Contact committee. There wasn't much left to do and it seemed that he'd have the time.

He grabbed the PADD and a glass of wine and sat on the sofa. He leaned back and tried to think of anything worth adding to his original report on first contact with the Vyuns.

The people of Vyus had been friendly enough, but their lack of any real resources that Voyager could use, in addition to the Vyuns being not in the slightest bit interested in anything Voyager could offer, convinced Kathryn that they should just politely wish the Vyuns well and move on.

It was Admiral Lancaster that wanted more information about the Vyuns. Chakotay couldn't imagine why.

He took a sip of wine and wondered if he could make an anagram of Lancaster's name, speculating that it would probably be a good word to use due to the number of vowels it contained. He stared at the name for a while and was delighted to discover he could make 'clean star'.

Not bad, he thought, but he pondered if he could make a single word. He was then thrilled to have come up with 'ancestral' a short time later.

He had to admit, this was actually fun.

He stared at Bendras' name, convinced that he'd have to be able to do better than Kathryn's 'bar ends'.

Chakotay put up his feet, took another sip of wine and closed his eyes and dropped his head back on the sofa. This seemed to be incredibly relaxing and he was looking forward to using the technique in the remaining sessions. He cycled through the available letters, deciding to try making some words starting with letter s and worked through some options.

Chakotay's eyes popped open and he leaped to his feet. Trying to stay calm, he checked and double checked the word he'd just conjured. Panic flooded through him despite his efforts. _Serband_.

He'd made the word Serband from Bendras. It had to be a horrible coincidence.

Serband had been on the list of Cardassians that the Maquis wanted dead. He had been a sadistic monster, supposedly responsible for multiple atrocities. Reports had come through that he'd been assassinated by his own troops before Voyager got sucked into the Delta Quadrant.

So he was dead.

Chakotay would have been sure about that but…Kathryn was on the ship with Bendras on her own.

"Chakotay to Security."

" _Commander Street here, sir_."

"Commander has Captain Janeway returned yet?"

" _Actually, they're now over thirty minutes overdue and not answering our hails. I'm with Admirals Rebreddrony and Kieta now discussing_ …"

"Permission to join you, admirals. _Please_."

" _Granted, Commander_ ," said Kieta.

Chakotay grabbed his discarded uniform jacket and wasted no time on requesting a beam out.

* * *

"Commander," Admiral Kieta nodded to him as he arrived. "You know Admirals Rebreddrony and Hartens? We were just about to take a couple of shuttles to Voyager. We've also discovered that the shields are up. We can't get any answer to our hails."

Chakotay's anguish increased even further. It was never a good situation when the number of admirals almost equalled that of the lower ranks. "May I join one of the shuttles, sir?"

"We're leaving in two minutes. We're just waiting for…"

"Commander," Chakotay's heart sank at the sound of Podmore's querulous voice. "If Janeway has cracked and you can't talk her down we'll have to get passed the shields somehow." He added in a not so veiled threat. "She seemed a little unstable during their sessions."

"With respect, sir, that's not true at all." Chakotay knew he shouldn't mention the anagram. "The captain has _not_ cracked. I'd stake my life on it."

"Well, commandeering a ship is totally against regulations, so I think describing her as being mentally unstable would be a kindness." Chakotay wasn't sure why, but Podmore certainly did hate Janeway.

Before he could say something, that was also probably against his precious regulations, Kieta spoke up.

"Admiral, as we don't have all the facts and circumstances, let's not apply blame quite yet."

Podmore huffed but didn't comment further.

Chakotay was disappointed that Podmore was joining the contingent in one of the shuttles. He couldn't imagine that he would be of any use at all but the other officers seemed level headed.

The contingent of two shuttles approached Voyager. There was nothing to be gleaned from observing the outside of the ship.

"Voyager, this is Admiral Rebreddrony. Lower your shields."

"No response, sir." said the ensign at operations. Chakotay thought he looked as green as Harry Kim in those first few weeks on Voyager.

"Is any information from scans of the ship, ensign?"

"Shields are up, no activity from the warp core. Weapons are not armed."

"This isn't getting us anywhere," said Admiral Podmore. "Voyager, lower your shields or we will open fire."

"Admirals, please!" Chakotay made his appeal to the other three officers, but couldn't believe this had escalated so quickly.

"I'm sorry, Commander, but Voyager _is_ full of highly classified material. We cannot let it be compromised in any way." At least Admiral Hartens looked upset at the prospect of attacking one of Starfleet's own ships.

Chakotay ran his hand through his hair. He had to think of something.

"Life signs, ensign?" Chakotay asked.

"There appear to be actually _four_ life signs on board, Commander. But it's impossible to tell who they are with the shields up. It could be a sensor error, of course."

"I'm afraid we have to also consider that Bendras and Janeway are compromised and Voyager has been boarded. We can't allow..."

"That's it!" said Chakotay, as inspiration hit him, he turned to Admiral Kieta. "Sir, may I try something?"

"I'm not sure what you can possibly think to achieve, Commander. The shields are _up_."

Chakotay ignored Podmore and appealed again to Kieta. "Please, sir."

The Admiral nodded his permission.

"Voyager, identify Chakotay Alpha Nine One One."

" _It's about time, Commander. Please rescue me_." The voice of Voyager's computer sounded churlish.

Chakotay almost laughed with relief. It seemed Tom had also adjusted the computer's responses.

"What the hell?" Podmore, on the other hand, wasn't amused in the least.

"Special back door command protocol the Captain devised, sir. It's only accessible by Voyager's senior staff." Chakotay explained. "We can access the shuttle bay but I'll need to be present. The protocol will now only recognize and allow access to Voyager crew."

"Commander, if someone has control over Voyager, they will be notified of any..." Rebreddrony pointed out.

"No, sir. Voyager won't rat out her family." Chakotay saw that the admiral still wasn't convinced. "Sir, I can get a shuttle into Voyager without any notifications to anyone on board. Captain Janeway was alive on Voyager when she activated that protocol and she must've been under duress to use it. She may not have much time. And, I'm sure you'd prefer Voyager returned to your control in one piece."

Podmore was spluttering in rage. Rebreddrony studied Chakotay and considered his proposal and he ignored Podmore but glanced at Kieta and Hartens as if to get their agreement.

The admiral only hesitated for a second. "Beam over to the tactical shuttle with the security team. You have permission to board Voyager. I want all the details when you get Bendras and Janeway back."

"Yes, sir!"

A little over five minutes later, the shuttle made its way toward Voyager's landing bay. Chakotay thought it somewhat ironic that the first time the emergency protocol was used was in the _Alpha_ Quadrant when they were supposed to be safe.

"Helm, hold at a hundred meters from the entrance of the shuttle bay."

"Yes, sir." A few seconds later, they were in place. "Holding, sir."

"Voyager, status of crew on board."

" _There is currently one Voyager crew member and three non members on board at this time_."

"Voyager, location and status of crew?"

" _Captain Janeway is on the Bridge. Captain Janeway is unconscious. Three non members are on the Bridge. One non member is trying to access details of shielding and transphasic weapons_."

"Voyager, notify Captain Janeway that help is here if she regains consciousness and allow access to Shuttle Invincible to the shuttle bay."

" _Acknowledged_."

"Commander won't letting Captain Janeway know tip our hand?"

"No, the computer will just make a specific pattern of chirps to alert the captain." Chakotay looked to the security team. "All set?"

After making sure that the security team knew what to do and where to go, Chakotay notified the admirals on the other shuttle of their plans and gave instructions to the pilot.

The craft touched down softly in the shuttle bay.

"There's no need for stealth," Chakotay informed the security team with him. "Voyager will inform me if anyone is approaching within two decks or changing location."

"Nice," one of the team murmured.

The group quickly approached the Bridge and the turbo lift announced their arrival but didn't open the doors.

"Computer, has there been any change in location and status of people on the Bridge?"

" _Captain Janeway is one point two meters left of the Operations console. Captain Janeway is semi conscious. One non crew member is at the Security console and is currently unsuccessfully trying to access control of this vessel_. _The other non crew members are seated in the Command chairs_."

Paris had definitely adjusted the computer since they'd installed the protocol. The last response was practically smug.

"Computer, notify Captain Janeway rescue is two minutes away."

" _Acknowledged_."

Chakotay explained to the security personnel with him what to expect on the Bridge.

"Phasers on stun. Okay, everyone set?" Receiving nods from the officers around him, Chakotay took a deep breath and checked once more. "Computer, any change to the location of people on the Bridge since my last query?"

" _Negative_."

"Computer, on my mark, play distraction vid alpha on the view screen and open the turbo lift doors simultaneously." He waited about two seconds and then, "Mark!"

* * *

It took less than thirty seconds to disarm and apprehend the two intruders and send Admiral Bendras and Janeway to the infirmary. Unfortunately, it looked like it would take significantly longer to deal with the wrath of the protocol committee. Or, at least, the remaining member of the protocol committee, as Bendras had been sent home from the infirmary to rest.

Thankfully, the tut tutting was cut short by an order from Admiral Rebreddrony who suggested that any discussions were best held in the presence of Captain Janeway.

So, after what seemed like an eternity, but was less than half an hour, Chakotay was finally able to get to the infirmary to check on the well being of his captain.

On arrival, he was greatly relieved to see her sitting on the side of a bio bed. She smiled when she saw him enter.

"Kathryn, it's good to see you up already."

As he got closer, he could see she still seemed to be in pain.

"Just waiting for the doctor to give me something for the migraine I seem to have developed."

The doctor appeared within seconds with a hypospray.

"Chakotay this is Doctor Dofreets. He's promised to stop my head exploding."

"Sorry for the delay, Captain. it took me a few minutes to contact your EMH. He'd made a note on your file about your headaches." The young doctor grimaced as he applied the spray to her neck. "His instructions were _very_ specific."

Janeway sighed in relief. "I can imagine. Sorry," she added ruefully. "Thank you, that feels much better." She rubbed her neck.

"I hope you're back to normal, because there's a bunch of admirals that want an explanation of some of the modifications to Voyager's systems that we forgot to tell them about." Chakotay smiled. "Systems that worked perfectly and exactly as you'd designed them, I might add."

"Really? You'll have to give me all the details over dinner." Janeway stretched her neck and rotated her shoulder. "Although, as far as the committees are concerned, they never actually asked about any special added features."

"In other words, we both forgot."

"I only actually remembered when Admiral Bendras really started to get…agitated."

The doctor cleared his throat. "I'm sorry I can't keep you here longer, Captain. You're free to go."

"If _only_." Janeway muttered as she slid off the bio bed and straightened her new tunic and turned to Chakotay. "Ready, Commander?"

"No, but I'll follow you anywhere."

They started towards the door. "Thanks, Chakotay. I know you were kidding, but I really do appreciate the sentiment anyway."

"I just hope they don't decide to extend the briefing time."

"Bite your tongue."

* * *

It seemed to Chakotay that the all the debrief personnel was present when he and Janeway stepped into the facility's largest conference room. He was glad to see Admiral Hayes and a few other command officers join them as apart from a few exceptions, the admirals running the debrief for the last few weeks were almost completely without any real experience of being on a starship. It would be good for Janeway to have some real peers present.

Admiral Podmore, who disapproved of seemingly every command decision Janeway had made during seven years in the Delta Quadrant got the the proceedings underway.

"Captain, can you explain what you did to cause the incident this afternoon on board Voyager? And why you allowed those two criminals aboard?"

Chakotay was probably the only person in the room that could tell that his captain was seething with anger at the admiral's assumption that somehow she had caused or had been complicit in the events. The rage was there for a split second and then it was replaced with a smooth but cold affect that only Janeway could manage.

"Perhaps, Admiral, it might be more beneficial if you and the…committee watched the video transcript of the incident."

"What video, Captain? Monitoring is turned off once ships are docked for maintenance."

"An…undocumented feature of Voyager, Admiral. It was activated by a non-crew member boarding the ship."

"It sounds ridiculously paranoid, not to mention against regulations."

"Being ridiculously paranoid was pretty much mandatory for Voyager in the Delta Quadrant, sir. But, if you'll allow me to access the video?"

Seeing the other admirals were indeed very interested in watching the events, Admiral Podmore reluctantly nodded his approval.

"Voyager, authorization Janeway Zero Sigma Eta One Tau nine one one; playback video from approximately," she glanced at a clock on the wall and realized why she felt so tired. "Four hours ago. Start at boarding of shuttle _Sacagawea_. Display on vid unit at my location."

" _Okeydokey_."

Janeway and Chakotay's gaze met on hearing the totally non-standard reply from the computer. Chakotay was fairly certain that the captain was going to do Tom Paris some bodily harm once released from the assembled group quieted as the ship's playback began, despite the smart mouthed computer. The video started as the shuttle left the conference centre.

It was paused almost straight away when Podmore asked "I thought this was a protocol for _Voyager_ , captain. This is outrageous!"

"The shuttle _Sacagawea_ is one of _Voyager's_ shuttles, sir. So it's part of the protocol."

"Admiral," Admiral Rebreddrony interrupted, "Perhaps you could actually _watch_ the vid before you make any conclusions." It wasn't a suggestion. "Resume playback."

The audience watched Janeway babble happily to Bendras about Voyager's idiosyncrasies and features, obviously thrilled about getting on board her ship for the first time in weeks.

 _About three minutes away from Voyager, however, the computer warned them of another vessel that was close and closing in quickly._

 _Janeway leaned forward and was obviously about to hail the vessel but Bendras interrupted her, "I'll take care of this."_

 _She relaxed until she apparently noticed Bendras dropping their shields._

 _"Admiral, you can't lower..." but before she had finished the sentence he pulled out a phaser and stunned her_.

Admiral Rebreddrony reacted immediately, turning to the nearest security officer.

"Lieutenant, contact headquarters and have Admiral Bendras arrested and bought back for questioning." He turned back to the screen. "Resume playback."

 _About ten seconds after shooting Janeway, two human males beamed aboard._

 _"You don't need me anymore. I've done what you asked. Beam me back." Bendras said as one of the two men removed Janeway from the pilot's chair and took her place._

 _"You stay with us until we've got what we need." The other man said, in a tone that silenced the admiral._

 _They landed the craft in Voyager's shuttle bay and the Bendras lead the two men, who were dragging Janeway between them, to the Bridge._

 _The_ _small group reached the Bridge and Janeway was unceremoniously dropped in front of the command seats and the two strangers went straight for the security and operations consoles._

 _"You need to give us access, Bendras." The man at security waved a phaser towards the admiral._

A gasp went out from the audience as Bendras complied instantly.

 _"Computer, allow full access to security database, authorization Bendras omega seven eight."_

 _"Access denied."_

 _"Admiral." The man at security said softly, making Bendras cringe._

 _"I_ told _you I don't have access. Janeway can access it."_

 _"Well, you'd better get her to transfer it.'' the man looked directly at Bendras. "Quickly."_

 _The admiral wasted no time. He nudged Janeway with his foot. "Captain! Wake up! Now!" Losing an patience, he kicked her in the thigh. "Captain Janeway!"_

 _Bendras_ _seemed as close to panic as anyone could get without actually screaming._

 _Janeway was coming around and let out a breathy groan._

 _"Captain, I need your command codes."_

 _"Whaaa…"_

 _Bendras grabbed the front of her tunic, lifted her off the ground and shook her._

 _"Janeway. Command codes. Now."_

 _"Admiral," Janeway looked over his shoulder at the two intruders. They looked angry. "I'm…er, regulations…"_

 _Still hanging on to the front of her uniform, Bendras released one hand and slapped her across the face._

 _"Command codes, Janeway! I won't ask you again."_

 _"Of course, Admiral," she replied sweetly. "All you had to do was ask. Computer, transfer command to Admiral Bendras, authorization code Janeway Zero Sigma Eta One Tau"._

 _"Transfer complete," the computer replied._

 _"I knew the crew were exaggerating how brave you really are." The admiral looked smug and somewhat relieved. "Thank you, Captain. I won't be needing your assistance further." He pointed the phaser at her and fired._

The assembled group watch mesmerized as the admiral and the boarding party tried to get any information from the ship's computer.

 _"…unable to comply."_

 _"How did this ship ever make it out of dry dock?" The largest of the intruders was obviously getting angry._

 _"Please restate the question."_

 _"Janeway! Wake up!" Bendras kicked her leg. "Come on! It won't obey my commands, Janeway! Fix it."_

 _"You heard me transfer command to you. What do you want me to do now?" The quality of the distain in her voice was somewhat lessened by the moan that escaped when she tried to roll over. "Maybe someone has disabled something since we've been home," she added quite reasonably._

 _"I thought you said everything was still in place, Bendras." The threat was obvious._

 _"It is, it should be. She's done something to stop us getting access." Bendras sounded like a whiny preschooler._

 _There were three chirps from the computer. Janeway smiled, as Bendras loomed over her._

 _You'll never get off Voyager, let alone get any classified information out."_

 _"I can send a data packet via…"_

 _"Nope, sorry, you can't."_

 _The admiral laughed. "You forget that I'm an admiral."_

 _Janeway rolled her eyes. "You really are an idiot."_

 _He struck her again._

 _"While you've been posturing and threatening me and the computer, Starfleet must have finally realized that they're missing a captain and a moron and are on their way to arrest you," she said with a smile. "With an added bonus of Tweedledum and Tweedledummer over there."_

 _"Bendras," said one of the intruders. The tone was that of a growl._

 _"I'll still have time to access data packets."_

 _"Except," she taunted with a smile, "no data."_

 _"Computer, download data file Omega Particle and send via frequency theta six four."_

 _"Unable to comply." There was an added chirp at the end of the computer's reply._

 _"What? Explain!"_

 _"Unable to comply."_

 _"What you failed to consider, Admiral, is that Voyager is_ my _ship."_

 _"Tell me how to access the files on the Omega Particle," demanded the admiral with more than a touch of desperation._

 _"No."_

 _Her head snapped back as his open hand slapped her hard across the face._

 _"I'm not joking! I need the information and I need it fast." Bendras' eyes were wide, spittle appeared at the corners of his mouth._

 _"No." Her voice was like ice._

 _"You don't understand!" Bendras screamed at her, "I don't have time for your posturing."_

 _"Admiral, why don't you…"_

 _"We don't have time for this," said one of the two 'friends' of Bendras._

 _Once more Janeway was phasered._

 _"This is your fault, Bendras. We won't forget this." He phasered Bendras and then turned to his friend. "This is a total washout. Beam us back to the shuttle. We'll..."_

 _Any further plans they might have had didn't get discussed as at that moment, the Security team, lead by Chakotay barged onto the Bridge._

"Well, that information is certainly illuminating." The admiral's tone was bitter and Chakotay hoped he imagined Podmore wanted to find something to find fault with the captain. However, after a short pause, it became apparent that Podmore was not yet willing to let her off the hook.

"I must say, Captain, it certainly seems unbecoming an officer and indeed a Captain, at the undue haste and cowardice you displayed in transferring command codes over to Admiral Bendras."

A gasp went around the room. Podmore was not a fan of Janeway's performance in the Delta Quadrant, but this attack, especially under the circumstances, seemed uncalled for.

Janeway had had enough.

"Did you not watch that video, Admiral? Admiral Bendras had absolutely _no access_ to any of Voyager's systems."

"Captain, we saw you transfer command…" he blustered.

"No, you saw me issue _a_ command to Voyager. That command, if you actually paid attention to the events on the video, actually stopped him and the others accessing _any_ information and in addition, even though the shields were up, a shuttle was permitted to board the ship with the rescue party, without actually notifying him of their presence."

"That's why you appeared to give in so quickly, Kathryn?" asked Admiral Hencelli. "Just what does this protocol achieve?"

Janeway turned to Hencelli. "Yes, ma'am. The protocol was devised to respond to a situation where the ship was boarded by a hostile force. Basically, it locks down the ship and feeds misleading information to the hostiles while allowing someone from the senior staff to access control. It will also allow crew members to remain 'invisible' to the computer, if required."

"That's ridiculous and non-regulation. It wouldn't work in the Alpha Quadrant because everyone would know about it." Admiral Podmore wasn't giving up.

"Except it was devised in the Delta Quadrant where no one would know about it and actually, sir, it _did_ work here."

"Against _regulations_."

"No, quite right, sir. I should have let them kill me and let Voyager be damaged or destroyed when Security ships stopped it from being accessed. I'm not quite sure what you're upset about."

"Captain your tone is not appreciated."

Chakotay rather thought that most of the other people in the room _did_ appreciate her tone.

"So, who on Voyager knew about this little scheme." Admiral Ginoke attempted to stay on subject.

"The senior staff all could invoke the protocol and only Voyager crew would be allowed to access the ship by shuttle or beam aboard, through the shields."

"That's brilliant, Kathryn." said Admiral Jamel.

"It violates at least five regulations!" Admiral Podmore said. "It was a foolhardy and irresponsible order. Allowing such junior officers, including an _ensign_ , to have this sort of power is unacceptable."

Admirals Jamel and Miony had apparently heard enough from Podmore but before they could speak, Janeway stood up and addressed them all.

"Okay, I've had enough. I've put up with the nonsense that has been this debriefing for the last couple of weeks, but now I'm being castigated for implementing a _Delta Quadrant_ protocol that resulted in successfully stopping a rogue Alpha Quadrant Starfleet admiral from stealing classified information. In addition to enabling the retaking of my ship without any damage or loss of life."

Janeway paused and rubbed her temples.

"There were so many occasions, while we were in the Delta Quadrant where Chakotay, Tom Paris, B'Elanna Torres or even Harry Kim - anyone of whom have more command experience or indeed space experience than half the admirals in this room - could easily have become captain of Voyager. Not only was it a good idea to include them, to not do so would've been folly and a dereliction of my duty.

"My job was to ensure that Voyager and her crew had the best chance of returning to the Alpha Quadrant. Luckily I had my extraordinary senior staff to fall back on.

"I lost control of my vessel three times due to overwhelming force and was able to retake it both times due to the efforts of members of the senior staff, including _Ensign_ Kim. On our own. No allies. No known friendly ships or races. No admirals.

"I had the responsibility for 150 lives, including five children at one point, in a part of the galaxy that was seventy years away from help but spitting distance from powerful and hostile species with whom Starfleet has never dealt.

"For seven fucking years.

"It was _my_ idea to enable the back door code. _I_ approved the creation of the ECH, _I_ formed a temporary alliance with the Borg and if that doesn't tell you something about how bad another enemy is, I don't know what will. _I_ approved B'Elanna Torres as chief engineer, Tom Paris as pilot, Seven of Nine in Astrometrics and Naomi Wildman as my assistant. _I_ blew up the Caretaker's array. I damn near lost my mind during the episode with the Equinox.

"So forgive me if I didn't always follow regulations. Most of the time I did. It's just sometimes when we were getting the shit kicked out of us by some other charming bunch of psychopaths, I didn't fill in the correct form.

"I've always expected to be court martialed when... _if_ we got home, so if we could just finalize this dog and pony show and send me to New Zealand and let Commander Chakotay go and hug his sister, I'd appreciate it."

Silence.

"Holy shit that was awesome!" whispered the young ensign sitting next to Chakotay. He agreed with the sentiment.

"Katie, you're more like your father every day," Admiral Hayes, who until this point hadn't spoken, seemed delighted.

"I don't know, that seemed more like Gretchen to me." said Admiral Ladrone , who also seemed to be not concerned at all.

Admiral Podmore was red faced and just as he was about to speak, Admiral Dahoon, who outranked him, spoke.

"Stand down, Podmore. You're letting your prejudices get in the way of the facts."

"Well." said Admiral Rebreddrony. "I believe everything we need regarding this incident from your point of view, Captain is covered by that excellent recording. I think this is a good time to declare the debriefings finished and let you go home to your family and friends."

"Admiral, I protest. There are further issues…"

"Podmore, enough. I've read your reports. You haven't had a productive outcome for weeks. In fact, you're basically paraphrasing the command team's logs. You've demonstrated today with your unfounded accusations and snide remarks about Captain Janeway a personal bias that is bordering on the outright inappropriate. Stand down. Now." Podmore stood with his mouth agape, staring at Admiral Rebreddrony. "Also, tomorrow I'd like to talk with you about your obvious close friendship with Bendras."

Janeway and Chakotay both wanted to kiss Admiral Rebreddrony who turned to them both and smiled. "Oh sorry. I didn't realize I hadn't dismissed you both. You're free to go and officially on leave from tomorrow. Contact my office if you require anything and Captain, we may need to speak with you at some future time about today's events. But right now… _dismissed_!"

"Yes, sir. Thank you."

The captain and commander, not wanting to tempt fate, turned and left for their quarters at a pace as close to running as they could manage without looking like they were trying to escape.

Janeway and Chakotay made their way slowly down the corridor. Happy to have survived both incident with Bendras on Voyager and, at last, finally excused from the nonsensical debriefings.

"I'm so happy. It's a pity that I feel like I've had a shuttle land on me."

"That's your body's way to complaining about being phasered three times. I'm surprised you can walk."

"I think the doctor put a little something extra into the analgesic he gave me." She rubbed her forehead. "Maybe we should swing by on the way out and ask for something to take home." She stopped walking. "Oh my god, Chakotay...we're going home! At last."

"Shh, don't jinx it." He took her elbow to steady her and directed her towards the Sick Bay.

"Boy, I hope there's a vid of that meeting available somewhere because the crew would love to see that. Especially Paris and B'Elanna."

"We'll get Seven to hack into the system if Owen Paris doesn't get us a copy. Before you kill his son for tinkering with the computer on that protocol."

They laughed, glad to have not only escaped the Bendras fiasco, but also now excused from further sessions and permitted to go home. Entering the Sick Bay, Janeway explained that they were being sent home and the doctor prepared something for her to take with her and added that he'd get the EMH to check on her the next day. She was in too good a mood to care about being nagged by two doctors.

As the left Sick Bay and made their way to their quarters for the last time, a thought struck Janeway.

"Chakotay, in all the chaos, I haven't had a chance to ask you how you figured it all out. I was so glad you realized what was going on. What tipped you off?"

"The anagram. I figured out what was bothering you about Bendras."

"You did?"

"Yep, I was waiting for you and I ran a few anagrams through. And then I thought I should be able to come up with something better than 'bar ends'. I nearly choked when I got 'Serband'."

Janeway's expression initially didn't change. When she saw the expectant expression on his face, she realized that she was supposed to be impressed.

"Never heard of him." She gave a head a little shake.

"What? You're kidding."

"Nope. I'd put it down to just thinking that Bendras was an asshole."

"That he was." Chakotay ran his hand through his hair. "I can't believe you don't know the name Serband."

Janeway gave a small shrug. "Sorry, who is Serbrand?"

"Serband," he corrected absently. "Cardassian. I won't go into details. Suffice to say, I was worried." He struggled with the coincidence and was still shaken with the 'realization', even though he knew that Serband was long dead. "Huh." Chakotay shrugged. "So. Where to now?"

"You should come home with me. My mother will adore you and I'd pay good money to see you with Phoebe."

"What about Seven?"

"I'd pay good money to see Seven cope with Phoebe too." Janeway laughed. "My sister is the scariest person in the Alpha Quadrant." She looked at him. "Chakotay, you're the only one who will feel awkward - you know that Seven would think feeling that was was inefficient."

"You're right, of course."

"Of course I'm right. We had this conversation at lunch yesterday. I'm the Captain. It's mandated that I be right at all times. Luckily for me, there are degrees of correct. So are you with me, Commander?"

They laughed together.

"I hope to be always with you. And I'd love to follow you home. _Again_." Chakotay said. "I've got an anagram for you."

She stopped walking and paid total attention. "Okay, hit me."

"Transits Hunky."

"I am _not_. Much."

 _\- A Tangy Hath Skyrocket -_ (The End).

Note: Also, it's not as shippy as it could've been. I started this story in *gasp* 2009, so I hope you'll forgive me wanting to get it finally the hell off my computer.


End file.
